Gundam Astraea Type F is the altered and enhanced form of GNY-001 Gundam Astraea. After Astraea completed beta-testing phase with Krung Thep, Celestial Being used its data to help develop the 3rd generation Gundams. Although Astraea itself was succeeded by GN-001 Gundam Exia, Astraea still had tactical value to Celestial Being and was transferred to their shadow support team, Fereshte.

When Astraea was initially introduced in AD 2292, its paint scheme was white with blue and red highlights. By AD 2307, Celestial Being decided to keep only the third generation Gundams known to the world (except GN-XXX Gundam Rasiel), but wanted the second generation Gundams to perform shadow interventions under Fereshte; its paint scheme had been altered to red with light brown highlights and its MS face has been covered with a Sensor Mask to disguise the fact that it’s a Gundam.

For weapons and combat, Astraea Type F maintained its original equipment: GN Beam Rifle, two GN Beam Sabers, GN Shield, Proto GN Sword, and GN Launcher. For mid-to-long ranged combat, Astraea can deploy its rifle and shield for mid-range combat; for greater firepower, it can use the GN Launcher to devastate enemy forces. For close combat, Astraea deploys its Proto GN Sword, its GN Beam Sabers, or its GN Vulcans to suppress enemy fire. As Exia’s predecessor, it also utilizes advanced combat methods of shield-and-strike tactics when battling enemy targets.

After Celestial Being’s defeat in AD 2308, Fereshte’s Astraea Type F was upgraded to GNY-001F2 Gundam Astraea Type F2, enhanced with the gathered spare parts of GN-001 Gundam Exia. With Astraea’s adaptation to Exia’s parts, it granted the unit with greater energy efficiency and better control with its GN Particles.

Astraea Type F’s design would return in AD 2311, when the Innovators replicated the upgraded versions of the 2nd generation Gundams and have them powered by GN Drive Taus. The Innovator’s Astraea Type F was classified as GNY-001FB Black Gundam Astraea Type F. Former Gundam Meister Fon Spaak managed to later procure the replica, renamed the unit back to its original designation. The unit was given additional weaponry, including a NGN Bazooka stolen from the ESF, GN Pistols (from Dynames), GN Hand Missile (from Kyrios), and the recently developed GN Hammer.; its new arsenal additions greatly increases Astraea Type F’s adaptability in combat and is named “Gundam Astraea Type F Full Weapon”. Overall, Astraea Type F has proven to be one of the most enduring units designed. Despite its antiquity to its more advanced MS contemporaries, Astraea Type F continues to be an adversarial threat to those who challenge it. [Source: wikia]

This gundam paper model is a SD GNY-001 Gundam Astraea (aka Gundam Astraea, Astraea, Gundam Astraea Type B), a 2nd generation prototype Gundam in the side story of Mobile Suit Gundam 00P, and piloted by Ruido Resonance and Chall Acustica, the papercraft created by One Piece, and shared by Kevin Chapman. The Astraea was later upgraded by Fereshte into the GNY-001F Gundam Astraea Type F and later the GNY-001F2 Gundam Astraea Type F2. There is another normal scale GNY-001 Gundam at the site: GN-001 Gundam Exia Free Paper Model.

The story is that as HRL’s battleship has gotten closer to CB’s Colony Krung Thep, 874 is gathering intelligence using the Sadalsuud, Ruido comes out in the Astrea to intercept. The instruction that came from Veda was “Defeat”. Here, Ruido in the Gundam starts attacking the person.

Later on, the second generation Gundam Meister arrived in a transport aircraft on a battlefield. Four HRL MS “Phantom”s against the Gundam Meister 874’s Gundam Sadalsuud fight a one-sided battle that ends in 36 seconds. Ruido Resonance in Astraea shoots down the first Hellion Platoon that was examining the AEU’s Orbital Elevator. In addition, 874 who intercepts in Sadalsuud, sees the shadow of an approaching aircraft and proposes that Ruido does a check. Ruido sorties in the Astraea in place of the injured Marlene. Ruido does not want Marlene to go out into the battlefield. If he was fighting very well, then there’s no need for her to go out into the battlefield. Ruido exterminates the Hellion force through Astraea.

When the primary Celestial Being team began their armed interventions, the Fereshte team was given the green light to use the four second generation Gundams and the original solar reactor in shadow interventions in order to aid Celestial Being’s own openly conducted interventions. However because of the Plan, it couldn’t be revealed that there were more Gundams aside from those conducted openly by the primary team. To disguise Astraea’s true nature it was repainted and fixed with a mask, and operated under the orders of leaving zero eye witnesses. This version of Astraea was designated GNY-001F Gundam Astraea Type F.

Gundam Astraea is one of the many successor unit to GN-0000 00 Gundam and predecessor to GN-001 Gundam Exia; a intermediary design and 2nd Generation prototype Gundam. The unit was designed and developed by Celestial Being’s Krung Thep engineering team. It was a testbed for a number of experimental technologies incorporated in pursuit of a greater combat performance and utility. While Astraea was not a specialized combat unit, the prototype helped fine-tune many weapons found in third generation Gundams. Of the four prototypes produced, Astraea’s design and purpose mirrors closely to 0 Gundam: a general-purpose combat MS.

The Krung Thep team developed Astraea to be a adaptable and versatile combat MS. As a testbed for experimental GN technologies, Celestial Being engineers created a series of prototype weapons from GN Blades to GN Rifles to refine GN weapons development. Because of the wide range weapons developed for Astraea, it can easily be reconfigured to become a close combat-type, heavy assault-type or a combined variation with its assortment of equipment; its the reason why classifying Astraea can’t be specified.

The Astraea’s standard armament consists of a pair of GN Beam Sabers stored on the rear skirts for quick access, a GN Vulcan in each wrist for small fire suppression, a GN Beam Rifle for ranged combat, and a GN Launcher for heavier firepower. While the launcher itself can be powered directly from the drive, it involves removing one of the clavical antennae. For more flexibility, the launcher can be handheld.

Astraea’s GN Drive control mechanism differs from that of 0 Gundam and its benchmarks are both in higher output and higher instabilities. The two ear-like protrusions that extend backwards from the sides of the head structure appear to be a design feature unique to the Astraea, but their purpose is thus far unknown. Astraea’s GN Drive featured a three-thruster design, a new propulsion system that extracts the maximum performance from the GN Drive by pushing it to the limit, but as a consequence, it made the drive unstable.

A reason why 2nd Generation Gundams don’t apply the cone-type propulsion system is because of the effect it has on their balance; the Gundams’ systems are’t suitable for it. In spite of this, a cone type GN vernier thruster system was experimented on Astraea and was classified as GNY-001B Gundam Astraea Type B. During its testing, Astraea contained the Trans-Am System. However, the black box within Astraea had yet to be activated and remained a hidden feature until the death of Aeolia Schenberg in AD 2307.

After CB engineers gathered enough data on Astraea, its technical and combat data was used to develop GN-001 Gundam Exia; however, CB engineers were not finished with Astraea either. Because Astraea still had tactical value, Astraea was transferred to the Fereshte team. Assigned as part of the shadow support team to the primary team, Fereshte redeveloped Astraea. Its overall system and combat capabilities was enhanced: its face is masked, given a red paint job, and was re-classified as GNY-001F Gundam Astraea Type F. [Source: wikia]

Armaments

GN Beam Rifle

A standard GN beam rifle. In order to improve firing rate and reduce the chances disruption due to shortage of power, it was equipped with an internal GN Condenser and is one of the earliest weapons that did so.

GN Launcher

Astraea’s most powerful weapon. When it was in its early stages testing, the weapon was slightly unstable in its particle control/output. It is equipped by removing one of Astraea’s neck clevical antennas and it sources its particles directly through this connection. More than one can be equipped at once, usually up to two. The data from this weapon was used in the development of Gundam Virtue’s GN Bazooka weapon.

Quad Cannon

An experimental configuration whereby four GN Launchers was used at the same time to create a certain effect. The theory was that when different streams are combined into one, the total output of the converged beam would be much greater. The test was conducted in space with an asteroid as the target after Veda’s approval was given. The data collected was eventually used in the development of the 3rd Generation GN-005 Gundam Virtue.

Proto GN Sword

The Astraea is armed with a Proto GN Sword, that can be vertically folded along the forearm like Exia’s GN Sword. As it’s name suggests it’s a prototype to Exia’s GN Sword, and is the first GN partical-lined physical blade created by Celestial Being. Even at the time of the construction of this weapon, it has already been planned for a rifle function to be included and the “Proto” part of the name refer to the incompleteness of the weapon as its still in development.

GN Beam Saber

The Astraea is armed with two beam sabers, docked behind either side of the waist. As the weapons themselves are test types, their performance versus the Exia’s beam sabers is unknown as of this time.

GN Sword Test Version

An early experimental test version of the GN Sword that was eventually used on the GN-001 Gundam Exia.